Louisiana Man Sentenced for Nooses Targeting ‘Jena Six’ Marchers

August 16, 2008 · Print This Article

- Grace Chung Becker, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, and Donald W. Washington, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, today announced that Jeremiah Munsen, 19, of Pineville, La., was sentenced to four months in prison for his role in using nooses to threaten marchers who participated in the “Jena Six” civil rights rally. In addition to the four-month prison term, Munsen received one year of supervised release and 125 hours of community service.

On Sept. 20, 2007, in an incident that garnered national media attention, Munsen and another person allegedly attached the nooses to the back of a pickup truck and repeatedly drove slowly and menacingly past a large group of African American individuals who had gathered at a bus depot in Alexandria, La., after attending the civil rights rally in Jena.

The defendant pleaded guilty April 25, 2008, admitting that he displayed two large, life-sized nooses from the back of his pickup truck with the intent to frighten and intimidate the demonstrators. He and the other person with him hung the nooses in a manner so as to be clearly visible to the gathered demonstrators, and Munsen then drove past the group two or three times while the other person glared out the window at the demonstrators. Munsen further admitted that he and the other person had previously discussed the Ku Klux Klan and how they thought the Klan would have responded to the rally in Jena, and he acknowledged that the Jena Six rally followed extensive public discussion regarding, among other things, the history of racial lynchings in the United States and the perception that a noose, when displayed in a racial context, constituted a symbol of racial violence.

“The defendant used a threatening and offensive tactic to intimidate peaceful civil rights marchers who were in Louisiana to rally against racial intolerance,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Grace Chung Becker. “The Civil Rights Division will continue to vigorously pursue racially motivated threats that violate federal law.”

“The defendant committed a federal hate crime by using a powerful symbol of hate to intimidate a group of interstate travelers because of their race,” said U.S Attorney Donald W. Washington. “It is a violation of federal law to intimidate, oppress, injure or threaten people because of their race and because those people are exercising and enjoying rights guaranteed and protected by the laws and Constitution of the United States. Our civil rights laws protect the civil rights of all Americans, and they emphasize the reality that we are all members of one particular race — the human race.”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Alexandria Police Department investigated this case, which was prosecuted jointly by the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Written by The Admin · Filed Under Louisiana, Race
Tagged: Jena 6, Jeremiah Munsen, nooses

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Joseph 3 months ago 1 point
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This is absolutely ridiculous. What about Munsen's Civil Rights? What about free-speech? He didn't physically harm or threaten anyone. You want to know why this nation is more racially divided now then since the 1960's? It's junk like this. No talent, two-bit government hack affirmative action quota statistics like Washington who keep using the law as a bully pulpit to intimidate and harass people who don't agree with their political beliefs. They are using the legal system as a weapon of oppression against people they dislike and THAT is unjust. These kind of heavy-handed government tactics do no one any good. All it does is anger and alienate the white majority in this nation. The people of this nation are not blind. Why do think the membership numbers of white supremecist organizations are sky-rocketing in this nation? The government needs to understand, for every Munsen they unjustly incarcerate, they create 10,000 more Munsens BECAUSE of their actions. Our ancestors fought, bled, and DIED for this country and the right to freely express ourselves regardless of the popularity of our statement. We will not be gagged and quietly ethnically cleansed from our own nation. If the government continues in this manner it will ultimately cause it's own demise because by alienating the white majority of this nation it is creating a resistance movement it cannot defeat...the American People. I can think of few choice statements from Patrick Henry and other great Amercan patriots that would fit the current situation in this nation, but I will save those for another time. If the blacks in this nation want to be seen as equals and to be treated like everyone else, then they need to act like everyone else. While they were marching through the streets of Jena trying to intimidate the State of Louisiana into giving "special treatment" to black criminals, the rest of the nation went to work and did something productive for society. I understand Munsen and why he did what he did. He was feeling the same anger and alienation many whites in this nation have been feeling for quite some time now. There is racial injustice and inequality in this nation, but it's not aimed in the direction Sharpton and his profiteering goons would like to lead us to believe. Case in point, if the Jena-6 had been white and they had beaten and nearly killed a black victim in a racially motivated attack they would be in prison serving life sentences on a whole slew of charges including "hate-crime" and "civil-rights" convictions, but since they were black, and their victim white, it's ok, we can give these violent criminals a pass and a shorter sentence so they can assault more people in the future. Is this really the message we want to send to the future generations of this nation? That it's ok to assault whites because they are somehow less deserving of protection under the law? Not in my book, and hopefully not in yours either. Think I'm wrong about the outcome if the racial roles had been reversed? Take a walk down memory lane with me for a bit and remember Ken Mieske and the incident that happened in Portland a number of years ago. It was a very similar situation to this, but it went just a bit further, and the victim died. How much more would it have taken for Barker to have ended in the same manner? What happened to the boys from Portland? They Justice System gave them sentences ranging up to 30 years. What's the only major difference between these cases? The attackers from Portland were white, and their victim was black. Another truly ironic thing is some of the same marchers who marched in Jena for "special treatment" for the Jena-6, marched 40 years ago in the name of "Justice" and "Equality" during the Civil-Rights Era. I guess over the course of time as the scales begin to swing between Justice and Self-Promotion, we now see where their loyalties really lay.

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